Bowds set for Tractor Boys reunion

Dean Bowditch will reunite with former side Ipswich Town this weekend when the Dons travel to Portman Road for their penultimate clash of the season.

Bowditch graduated through the Tractor Boys’ youth set-up and, after penning his first professional contract in June 2003, went on to make 75 appearances for the East Anglia club.

“I’ll always have a fondness for Ipswich because it’s the club I grew up at,” Bowditch said. “I was there from the age of 10 and I left when I was 21 so I was there for a long time.

“They helped me develop into the player I am today. They’ve produced a lot of good players and I think that helped me at the time - I had some great players around me and that’s why I enjoyed it so much.

“I made a lot of good friends and there are a few people that I still speak to, mostly the coaches that I worked with growing up.

“A lot of it has changed now but I still have a great fondness for the club and always look out for how they’re getting on.”

Bowditch left Ipswich in July 2009 after more than 10 years with the club and the winger admits it was a difficult decision to make, despite knowing it was the best thing for his career.

“For footballing reasons, it was the right decision. My career at that stage had stumbled and I wasn’t really going anywhere.

“It was the right time for me to leave but to leave a club I’d been at for so long was difficult.”

One of the highlights from Bowditch’s time with Ipswich was his dream home debut, where he netted a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory over Watford.

“It was a long, long time ago now so my memory of it is a little bit faded,” he joked.

“It was probably the easiest hat-trick I’m ever going to score and their keeper helped me out with two of the goals!

“It was a great achievement, although I didn’t realise how good it was at the time because I was only a kid. To score a hat-trick on your first home start on television – it doesn’t really get much better than that!”

Tickets are no longer on sale from the Box Office.

Tickets for the clash with Ipswich can be bought from the turnstiles at Portman Road on Saturday - tickets are priced at £35 adults, £25.50 seniors/students, £24.50 under-20s and £12.50 under-16s.